New board chair appointed for University of Calgary

By Kristy Koehler, August 20 2019—

Alberta post-secondary institutions had 11 new board members appointed amid a flurry of announcements by the United Conservative Party last week. A new board chair, Geeta Sankappanavar, was appointed for the University of Calgary.

A press release from the UCP said that “the new appointees bring strong financial and industry experience, which will strengthen financial oversight and connections to industry” and that “the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars spent every year are providing maximum return on investment for all Albertans.”

“Geeta Sankappanavar is a respected business leader in Calgary, with extensive board governance experience in the public and private sector,” said U of C President and Vice-Chancellor Ed McCauley in a statement. “Ms. Sankappanavar is the president of Grafton Asset Management and was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women and one of Alberta’s 50 Most Influential People. We look forward to working with our new and existing board members in continuing to build our great university.”

In addition to Sankappanavar, two public members were also appointed — Heather Christie-Burns and Cody Church. According to the biographies on the government’s website, Christie-Burns founded two upstream oil and gas companies and was President and Chief Executive Officer of High Ground Energy Inc., while Church founded TriWest Capital Partners and worked for EXOR America.

University of Calgary Board of Governors meetings are open for the public to attend. The next meeting will be Oct. 18 at 8:00 a.m.